Lumina Foundation is working to increase the share of adults in the U.S. labor force with college degrees or other credentials of value leading to economic prosperity.
For the first time in decades, Congress has expanded the Pell Grant program, allowing recipients to use the funds for programs as short as eight weeks. The introduction of Workforce Pell Grants could be a boon for Americans who are already working, especially adults who want to quickly upskill or retrain to access new or better jobs.
But for many students coming straight from high school, Workforce Pell Grants are more complicated—and may unintentionally steer them toward short-term programs that limit long-term opportunity. Kim Cook of the National College Attainment Network explains more in this op-ed.
Students may now get a warning from the U.S. Education Department about the colleges they are considering when they apply for federal financial aid.
The department announced Monday that it will send students a notice of “lower earnings” for colleges where graduates earn less than a high school graduate four years after completion.
The department's research tags nearly one-fourth of the nation's higher-education institutions—1,365—as having "lower earnings." Eighty-eight percent of these institutions are for-profit, and 80 percent, like technical and beauty schools, do not award degrees.
As investment pours into Phoenix, financing the construction of factories for dozens of suppliers to Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company and other chip makers, the success of the effort may hinge on how effectively local people can be educated to do the needed work.
By one estimate, more than 115,000 local semiconductor jobs are expected to be created in the next four years, lending the mission special importance.
For years, colleges have primarily referred homeless students to shelters, nonprofits, and other external organizations. But a new shift is happening, with institutions starting to look internally for solutions. Long Beach City College's Safe Parking Program is one of the most visible of a new crop of programs addressing student housing insecurity by giving students unorthodox places to sleep: cars, hotels, napping pods, homes of alumni, and even an assisted living facility.
What sets these stopgap efforts apart from longer-term strategies is that they’re designed to be flawed. College administrators know that Band-Aid programs are insufficient. And yet, while long-term projects are underway, what’s woefully inadequate can be quite a bit better than nothing.
The process of applying to college has likely never been more intense, with college costs soaring, competition rising, and many schools mired in controversy or conflict with the Trump administration. In the face of this reality, high school students must choose the school that best suits their needs. Not all of them will make the right choice.
Jeff Selingo, who writes about higher education and has a new book, “Dream School: Finding the College That’s Right for You,” encourages families to look beyond elite and selective schools and consider institutions that offer strong job prospects, student engagement, and a sense of belonging.
Chancellor Jennifer Mnookin, who leads the University of Wisconsin-Madison, sees opening a new College of Computing and Artificial Intelligence as the right move to support in-demand majors and says funding the school won’t come at the expense of other areas of the university.
Mnookin offers insight about why campus leaders are so eager to invest in the study of AI in this interview.
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